Drivers Feeling Pain At The Pump, Experts Predict Gas Prices Could Reach $4 Per Gallon In New York City

SECAUCUS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — More people are feeling the economic squeeze as the Labor Department says inflation has soared to its highest rate in more than four decades.

Consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month, compared to a year before — the steepest one-year increase since 1982. Supply shortages, low interest rates, federal aid and high consumer spending are all contributors.

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As CBS2’s Natalie Duddridge reported Thursday, gas prices have been seriously affected.

Prices typically drop in the first few months of the year as people stay inside and avoid the cold, but experts say this year is different due to the weather and geopolitical tensions. The prediction for drivers is it’s only going to get worse.

“I just filled up one of my trucks. Usually average $3.50 or something. Now, it’s almost $5,” said Rafael Johnson of Secaucus.

Johnson runs a delivery company and operates four trucks that he says are getting too expensive to fill.

“I used to spend $500 a week. Now, I spend $900. So it’s a lot. It’s like double. It’s crazy,” Johnson said.

“You can feel it. I just got gas, it was probably $15 more right now to fill a tank,” Chris Tafaro added.

Tafaro, who used to work as a crude oil trader, has been watching closely as the average price of a gallon of gas hit $3.47 nationally, according to AAA.

New York City is up to $3.67 per gallon, eight cents more than last week.

New Jersey is up to $3.55, 11 cents more.

Long Island is up to $3.60, also 11 cents more.

“It’s tripled,” Linda Zaccone said. “My God, it used to be $1.79, $1.59 for fuel. I’m paying $3.59, in probably a year. I was taking road trips to Virginia to see my family. Now I’m not. I don’t take road trips.

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Experts say the increase is spiked by worries over instability in eastern Europe.

“All of this has to do with the tensions that we’re seeing between Russia and Ukraine,” said Robert Sinclair of AAA Northeast. “If that becomes a shooting war, there’s serious worries about oil supply.”

Extreme winter weather is also to blame.

“The extra demand for electricity to heat homes and businesses resulted in power-generating plants switching over, very often, to oil to create that extra electricity,” Sinclair said.

It has bumped the price of crude oil to $90 per barrel, nearly $30 more than in August.

“A lot of analysts are saying that we’ll hit $100 per barrel. If that happens, we could be looking at prices for gasoline in New York City close to $4 a gallon, and that’s going to be very, very harmful,” Sinclair said.

“I don’t know, what can we do about it? Get an electric car?” Tafaro said. “I’m just gonna keep filling it up and just try to not drive if I can.”

“Truckers are paying a fortune. I’m in the shipping business. We’re going to pay the price at the end of the day. It cost four times the amount to put a container on a boat to get it over here,” Zaccone added.

And the costs are trickling down to consumers.

“A lot of the groceries are starting to go up 5-6%. The price of meat is up. The price of chicken is up. I think it’s all one big circle,” added Ralph Serrano of Woodbridge.

In a survey from 2018, during a good economy, 40% of drivers said their “pain point,” their threshold, for gas would be $3 per gallon.

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Experts predict prices will keep climbing.